Casting doubt on a voting plan

Seventy-two days from now, when an estimated 122 million Americans will vote for our next President, nearly every crucial part of Election Day machinery - from the operation of the machines to the clarity of the ballot choices - will be, in many places, a confusing mess.
The coming chaos is a testament to the indifference with which so many treat the yawning cracks in the foundation of our democracy.
Consider this your wakeup call.
Just last week, following years of complaints, a company called Premier Election Solutions - a division of Diebold, Inc. - made the startling announcement that boards of elections in 34 states should be on the lookout for a software glitch that sometimes causes votes to be dropped from its machines.
The problem caused at least 1,000 votes to vanish from the final tallies in nine Ohio counties since 2006 - including this year's presidential primary.
That's consistent with a report I wrote about last year, in which Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Bruni concluded that machine flaws meant that "the tools needed to compromise an accurate vote could be as simple as tampering with the paper audit trail connector or using a magnet with a digital assistant."